TDC/Key steps
The Digital Campus: Proposal Steps
1: Identify your target presses
2: Research and evaluate your target presses
3: Gather submission information for your target presses and summarize your book’s fit
- Examine proposal templates and submission requirements
- Identify appropriate acquisitions editors (and series editors if applicable)
- Write up paragraphs summarizing the fit between your book and each target press
4: Generate raw material for your proposal package
5: Draft a letter of inquiry to introduce your project to editors
6: Collect a list of comp titles
7: Articulate your book’s audience
- Answer some typical questions from an author questionnaire
- Write up a paragraph or two about your target audience
8: State your book’s thesis
- Look at your written materials for statements of argument
- Write up a one-paragraph summary of the book’s core argument
9: Distill a one-liner for your project
10: Draft a project description
11: Summarize your book’s chapters
12: Come up with working titles for your book and its chapters
13: Revise your proposal materials for style and voice
14: Write an author biography
15: Create an author CV from your full CV
17: Prepare to connect with editors
- Draft an email asking to meet
- Practice your oral quick pitch
18: Submit your proposal
POST-SUBMISSION STEPS
19: Respond to your reader reports
20: Get a head start on your promotion efforts
From: Laura Portwood-Stacer, The Book Proposal Book: A Guide for Scholarly Authors, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021, (pp 151-2)